Published 4:00 am, Saturday, August 10, 1996

Bethel Island -- A man who died when his car went out of control and hurtled off a dock appeared to have been drinking, investigators said yesterday.

The driver, 75-year-old John Woods of Bethel Island, drowned, according to the Contra Costa County coroner's office.

Woods was driving north on Piper Road at about 3:50 p.m. Thursday when he ran a stop sign at Willow Road and went up the incline entrance to Russo's Marina in Bethel Island.

His red Honda Accord was going 70 miles an hour when it hit a boat trailer and fence, flew in the air about 100 feet, smashed into a pole and landed on a boat dock where it rear-ended a houseboat and plunged into the water.